Revelation

In silence, captain Kheren reflected on the data provided by Samji and realized that, as much as he wanted a peaceful solution to everything, it would prove difficult; especially with the Horizon Children.

With a sadness that tettered on the edge of anger, the Andorian now finally realized that the Horizon Children truly looked like a lost cause.

Kheren understood passion like the one that was driving these cultists... but at the same time, he was totally baffled by these people fueling such passion with completely irrational ideas of death and annihilation that had no ground in reality.

Andorians held no belief in the supernatural. On Andoria, even the old religions had known their own gods as being made in their own image, not the opposite as Humanoids, from Bajorans to Terrans, had or still beleived. Out of their own prehistory, physiologically pragmatic Andorians had never attributed to natural phenomenons or things and events any relation to the supernatural. A Jihad, a religious war, the very idea of causing death and destruction based on such a flimsy thing as faith, was utterly alien to them.

Even more, mass destruction for any reason was just as inconceivable to Andorians. To them, it was the upmost example of utter insanity and barbarism. In all of its History, longer than other spacefaring civilizations, Andoria had never known anything like a global war, never knew the large scale devastation that had almost destroyed worlds like Earth with its three world wars or even Vulcan before the reform of Surak. This idea of letting the whole universe burn for their own egotistical needs was even more insane to an Andorian than any ridiculous belief in the supernatural.

But considering both together... dangerously insane.

Indeed, no Andorian in his right mind would ever willingly follow such madness; neither would any Vulcan, as their own inbred logic would instantly disregard such murderous irrationality for what it was. But as for others...

Kheren stood up to be clearly heard

"Gentlebeings; my crew and I have faced these cultists before. I sincerely hope that a peaceful settlement can be achieved with those who fail to see our true intent, even them. I support any endeavor in this regard and I am willing even to have my crew and myself involved in such peace efforts if need be."

His four oculars swept every pair of eyes in the room as he explained:

"The Klingons want to take for themselves the destructive potential of the anomaly before anyone else can do so against them; it is the predictable attitude of a people for which survival, war and conquest are one and the same. But once they will realize that the Federation is working effectively to deprive everyone, including Starfleet, of that potential, they should be easy to persuade to relent."

Lifting a callused hand towards the images of Sela and Tomalak, he continued to speak with the same neutral tone.

"The same can be said of the agressively fearful Romulans. They simply want to destroy the anomaly as the easy way out of a catastrophy; a catastrophy they already had a painful taste of when their homeworld was destroyed by the Hobus supernova merely decades ago. But they too should be amendable if convinced that Lotus Fleet is willing and able to effectively defuse the threat for good."

His voice then turned cold as he added:

"The cultists are, alas, not so easy to deal with. Klingons and Romulans can be reasoned with; their actions are based on reason, even if their reason is based on wrong data and unfounded fears. But the Horizon Children's motivation are solely based on, either irrationality or worse, manipulation of everyone, including themselves, by a few megalomaniacal egos. One or the other, they act out of insanity, not reason. They want the catastrophy to occur. They declared themselves mercilessly uncaring of all lives but their own, including the lives of innocent children; lofty judges, jury and executioners of entire civilizations, including those barely emerging; self-proclaimed chosen ones separated from everything that would die and be lost forever for their own selfish sake."

He looked at Captain Gould.

"We should nevertheless try... but it might prove futile to try to reason with insanity."

And then, he looked at Summers, Crist, Rivers and finally Samji.

"Gentlebeings, I urge you all to immediately implement the strictest security measures as we did on the Artemis. Their attack on my ship, costing the lives of seven of my crewmen, did not come from outside but from within my own crew. We all must be especially vigilant; this madness can spread everywhere, in every mind that eschew reason. As I speak, there could even be a cultist here with us in this very room."